The year 1971 saw the group The New Seekers release their hit “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)”. The song paints a lovely picture of a home for the whole world, furnished with love. In the garden are “apple trees and honeybees and snow-white turtle doves.” Everyone stands hand-in-hand, singing a song of peace that echoes through the hills and throughout the land.   The song would be easy to dismiss as a saccharine earworm that betrays its origins as a

As always at the beginning of Advent we anticipate the Lord Jesus both in his coming as man at the first Christmas, and at the end of time as the mysterious Son of Man.   The first understanding is the one which is most familiar to us—we are awaiting the birth of the child in Bethlehem; it’s all cute, there are farmyard animals, simple shepherds, angels dashing all over the place, and finally the visit of the wise men from the East—it ‘s all nice—kids act it out at Mass and e

The institution of monarchy has fallen on hard times in the modern world. Ever since King Louis XVI was guillotined during the French revolution, the number of kings and queens has become smaller and smaller with the passage of time. Australia continues to be a monarchy and our monarchy has recently attracted a great deal of attention, celebration and commentary through the passing of the late Queen Elizabeth II after a very long reign and the accession of her son, King Charl

We’ve all watched movies in which some possible disaster—a nuclear war, a gigantic meteorite, an unstoppable virus—causes the end of the world as we know it. After 90 minutes of tension and terror, we normally manage to do what we have been trained to do: we re-assure ourselves that it won’t happen to us in our lifetime, we get a good night’s sleep, and we get back to our jobs and our family life. Any adult who spent the night sleepless with fear and could not get on with lif

Today we celebrate the 1,701st anniversary of the dedication of the Church known as St John Lateran in Rome, which took place in 324. As is well known, there are four major basilicas in Rome: St John Lateran, St Peter’s in the Vatican, St Paul’s outside the walls, and St Mary Major. However, despite there being four major basilicas, we only celebrate the dedication of St John Lateran’s. In fact, the order in which the major basilicas are listed above is their order of ranking

Back in 2013, scientists came across some bones in a cave. These bones belonged to an unknown human species, some 300,000 years old, which they named Homo Naledi,  with a brain about a third the size of modern Homo Sapiens . Surprisingly, these bones seemed to be organised in such a way as to suggest they had been deliberately interred. There’s been much debate about whether other Homo Naledi buried them ,  or some natural process brought the bones there, or contemporary or l

Jesus begins this parable very simply: “Two men went up to the temple to pray.”  Nothing dramatic—just two men, going about something holy. But as the story unfolds, it overturns everything we expect.    One of them is admired and respected—a man of faith, known for his devotion. The other is despised, mistrusted, and written off as a sinner. Yet when they go home again, it’s not the respected man, but the despised one, who is justified before God.    This story is not only a

At the end of his mortal life with us, Jesus cried out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That is, the Son of God called on his Father in the depths of suffering and distress. It was a dark day for humanity when the Son saw his abandonment, when not even God’s only Son seems to catch heaven’s ear. There are uncertainties about him saying “Why have you forsaken me?”: is he quoting a psalm? Has he lost sight of heaven? Is he showing us what to do? In what sense is he

Recently I heard a song playing in a shop. I vaguely registered that I hadn’t heard that song in over twenty years. That was my only...

(The first Sunday of October in the Province of the Assumption is celebrated as Rosary Sunday) One of the many gifts to the people of God...

When I was a nineteen-year old science student at the University of Adelaide, there were four students called Gillard. I became friends...

Today’s parable might strike us as somewhat bizarre. It seems to present a dishonest steward as someone to imitate. This is despite the...

We can often romanticise the past. Take our own history. Many people lived and died with extraordinary heroism to make our own life...

This Sunday, Pope Leo XIV will canonise Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati as a saint. There is no doubt that this young man is an inspiration for...

When he was received into the Catholic Church, John Henry Newman had an uncertain future.  For twenty years he had been an Anglican...

One of the least admirable traits of public figures is their ability to field dozens of questions from journalists without giving direct...

Too often in our glancing through scripture do we seek the comfortable, loving, and consoling words of Jesus; phrases like: "Come to me...

Shortly after the Second World War, a communist government took over Czechoslovakia, and started cracking down on dissent and religious...

Today’s feast is the feast of Dominican friars, nuns, sisters and laity all around the world, of whom there are more than 100,000. It is...

How we read a text depends on what questions we bring to it. We might think of Abraham’s negotiation with God as being about whether a...